It died before it started
by Made In The Morgue
Summary: The world is simple, dull, and cruel, especially to Sorcerers. Well at least that's what Yoshiki thinks. Whenever he finds something to cherish it just get's destroyed or stolen in some way or another. Taking the pieces back is going to be the hardest thing to do.
1. Sacrifice

Ayumi coughed up blood as she casted another spell. A flurry of lightning bolts appeared and she aligned them to the target. Yoshiki dodged the attack just in time and managed to cut her on the arm with his axe edge that spawned out of his right arm.

She knew that their partnership would end like this. There was no other way. And yet...no she couldn't let herself drown in her emotions. She wanted to win, but she wasn't sure if she could live with herself after he was gone. Deep down she was truly afraid of sacrificing him. She was afraid of the Sacrifice twisting and changing her in some way. She had never Sacrificed a living thing before, Ayumi had no idea what it was like.

She dodged another attack of sharp stones that were sent her way.

Anyway it's not like she had a chance. Her healing seed was already damaged so she couldn't repair her wounds.

Ayumi screamed in pain as she was hit in the back by a Goblin. Of course there were other monsters here. She stumbled forward and lost her balance. In that instantYoshiki hit her with an iceroot. She cringed feeling the blood that had seeped from her wounds freeze over her skin.

She struggled to get back up and wondered what was taking him so long to just defeat her. She released a static mine and shot a glare at him. If he came close he would be shocked by it. It's not like it would make a difference though. He could take a lot more damage than she could. She didn't know what else she could do. If she ran he would surely hunt her down. If she stayed she would die. Either way it was the end for her.

Yoshiki stepped closer to the mine and waited for the bolt to strike him. When it did he shook a bit with the pain, but endured it. Ayumi conjured a bolt burial clod, a fist made of thunder and earth, and watched as Yoshiki took the hit. He flew back and smashed into the stone wall across the room.

Ayumi got up and powered up her sparktree root. Maybe she had a chance of winning. She watched as Yoshiki slowly got up, she wasn't sure if she was going to make it in time with her speed to get to him while she was still injured.

Instead of healing himself he slowly brought his fist up. Ayumi knew this was her chance. She could get him if only she could move a bit faster. She slipped and fell as she felt a twinge of pain from her right side. The ice had made it into her cut and was now freezing areas under her skin.

He brought his fist down hard on the ground and summoned a Golem. The beast slammed her into the ground with its large stone hands and then whacked her aside like a ragdoll.

"Auugh!" The pain was excruciating, she felt several bones in her break at the impact of the Golem's hand.

Finally he threw a flurry of toxic leaves and thorns at her from his right palm. Ayumi was already on the ground in pain. He had made sure to paralyze her with it. She could feel the poison coursing through her body and slowly taking away her health. She closed her eyes ready for what was to come.

She heard him moved towards her and bend down. "I-I can't." Ayumi opened her eyes at his voice. She looked over at him. He was distressed and scared. "I can't sacrifice you."

He sat down on the floor next to her and covered his face with his hands. Something about him looked so lonely. She wanted to hold him, and tell him everything would be okay. She had never seen this side of him. Afterall he was always the one to sacrifice monsters while she saved them.

"Don't be a fool." She said. Ayumi spat those words out with pain and false bitterness. She had too. To make sure he would be okay. To show that she didn't care for him as much as he thought.

"You're suppose to be a Sorcerer. Do what must be done."

"Like you're one to talk." He responded taking away his hands from his face and looking at her with a pained expression. She wanted to cry, but held it in.

He extended his hand out and touched her face. "I love you. I know I'm not suppose to, but..." He trailed off as he got lost trying to say the right words.

"But you couldn't help it?" Ayumi asked as she smiled. She felt a warmth radiating through her chest at his words. He loved her. It was almost too much to bear. She had fallen for him as well. Along with all the missions and things. They had supported each other and gone through so much. He had taught her things and she had given him knowledge as well. Without knowing they had formed a strong bond.

She wanted to tell him her feelings, to have him know before she was gone. She wanted him to hear it from her own lips. Although she wasn't sure if that would stop him from making the sacrifice.

Ayumi lifted up her hand slowly and touched his right arm. "I'll always be with you." She said. Yoshiki moved and cradled her upper body in his arms and lap.

"I can't. I don't want to." Yoshiki said. It looked as if he were going to cry.

"You made a promise to your sister. You have to go to Avalon and find your parents. You have to save them..." Ayumi said. She knew of what he wanted to do since the beginning. He had told her clearly and to not get in his way. Thinking back to it they were really bitter to each other when they first met. He was determined to find his parents before any other sorcerer could and save them both and bring them back home. They had both turned into monsters trying to provide their children with money and food. Slimes was what they became. It was so natural for people who lived in poverty to be overtaken by their desire and turn into monsters.

"Don't let me get in the way of your path." She said as she looked into his eyes.

He bent down and kissed her softly. Ayumi's heart fluttered at the contact. What a pity. This would be her first and last kiss. He gently laid her down on the ground and stood up.

"I'll always remember you." He said as he began the process of sacrificing her. She felt no pain at all surprisingly. She thought she would, but it was like a numbing sensation.

Just when it was almost over she whispered three words. "I love you." Although it was a whisper Yoshiki had definitely heard them. He wanted to stop, but it was too late.

As soon as he absorbed her soul he felt a warmth radiating through him. It was like she was trying to fix the broken pieces inside him. It was only natural of her. She was a divine sorceress after all. He was neutral, because there were times when monsters deserved to be saved. But he couldn't turn a blind eye to the ones who didn't.

Determination flooded through him, he wouldn't let Ayumi's death be in vain. He was sure of it. He would save his parents and bring them back home.

His right arm lit up in a whitish blue color. "Our love is dead." He muttered.

_I know._

He heard a little whisper and knew it was her voice.

_It died before it started._


	2. Stupid Sorcerer

Sometimes he would hear her voice. Soft whispers in the darkest parts of his mind. He heard it was a sin to fall in love with your partner. Whatever. She was dead so what did it matter? He lay his head on the grass. If only they had met in Avalon after dealing with each of their own separate Ordeals, then maybe things would have been different. He turned over on the ground. Tomorrow he had work to do. The plan was to earn some money getting rid of monsters then to search for his parents. His eyes grew heavier as he thought of the next day.

...

He awoke to the sun hitting his face. He stood up, dusted himself off and picked up his sack. The town was only five miles away now, hopefully they needed a Sorcerer to exterminate monsters. He pulled out his map and noticed a river that flowed through the town, if he could just find it all he had to do was follow the river to his destination.

After walking for what seemed like hours he found the river. He bent down near the edge and splashed water on his face. He hated hot days like this, the bugs always tried to take a bite of him and he always felt tired. He sighed and held his right arm. Ayumi hated days like this too, mostly because it interfered with her ice magic. It would be considerably weak on days like this. She would frown and stomp her foot as she watched her ice melt quickly before her eyes. He would tease her about her weakness and that she would never be a true Sorcerer. Then she'd yell at him and freeze his hands so he wouldn't be able to do anything for a few minutes.

He missed her.

He wiped his watery eyes before tears started to form and continued to walk beside the river. Hopefully he'd get to the town by sundown.

"Help!" Yoshiki jolted at the sound of the yell. He thought of just continuing on and walking forward, he had no time to lose after all. He had to get to the town as soon as possible. He could tell it was some poor Sorcerer, after all only Sorcerers traveled in the woods. Common folk were too afraid to do so, for fear of monsters attacking them. Anyways he should leave him, if a Sorcerer couldn't even defend themselves from weak monsters in the woods then he deserved to die.

_Yoshiki..._

Her voice filled his head and for a moment he though she was right beside him. He knew that without a second thought Ayumi would have ran to save the Sorcerer.

"Please... someone... Help!"

Yoshiki grumbled, "Fine." He then ran into the woods to the source of the scream. He could hear the hissing noises of Fruit Spiders. Yoshiki crouched down behind a bush as he neared closer to them. He moved into the bush more to get a better look at the scene. Yoshiki almost laughed upon seeing a Sorcerer tied up in a sticky web cocoon. Three huge Fruit Spiders were slowly making their way up to their pray.

Fire worked best on these types of monsters, but he didn't want to deal with accidentally causing a forest fire in this dry summer heat. Yoshiki punched the dirt ground and from his fist ice shot out and traveled on the ground to the spiders' legs. It froze the two into solid blocks of ice. Yoshiki then stood up from his hiding spot to reveal himself to the Sorcerer.

"Looks like you got yourself in quiet a mess..." Yoshiki said trying not to laugh. He smiled a bit as he watched the guy move frantically in the web.

"Yeah, yeah. Can you just help me out first and then laugh at me later?" He said.

Yoshiki rolled his eyes, "What? No thank you?"

"Well you haven't properly saved me yet. I'm still stuck in a mess."

"And I can still leave you stuck like that." Yoshiki turned around, "It's only a matter of time before the ice thaws..."

"Okay! Okay! Thank you."

"That's more like it." Yoshiki then opened his right hand and out shot ice shards that cracked the ice blocks into a million pieces. Two smaller dead spiders then appeared in place where the giant spiders' bodies had been. Yoshiki bent down and plunged his arm into one and Sacrificed it. He felt the power course through his arm then settle nicely in him, it gave him a very much needed energy boost. He did the same to the other body.

He then looked over at the struggling Sorcerer. "Now there's a special way to get out of the web."

"You're not tricking me are you?"

"No I'm not. Now listen." Yoshiki now stood in front of him. "You have to find a loose spot in the web, if it's too tough then melt it a little with fire magic."

The Sorcerer nodded. "Found it."

"Okay now stick your hand through it." The Sorcerer complied and out popped his left arm.

"Find another spot and do the same with your other arm."

He did so and looked at Yoshiki, "What now?"

"Wiggle you're body and you pull up the web over you're head."

He did just that and in a few seconds he was out of the web cocoon. "Thanks."

"No problem." Yoshiki turned around to leave, "Well I gotta go so-"

"Wait! Where are you going?" The Sorcerer asked.

"Um..." He wasn't sure whether to tell him or not. He didn't seem dangerous, and if he tried anything Yoshiki could kill him in an instant. "To the town just up North."

"Really? I'm headed there too. I got lost on the way. Do you mind if I follow?" He asked

Well yes Yoshiki did mind. He didn't feel like having a complete stranger follow him all the way to the town. He didn't like people in general either, he did seriously mind.

_What if he get's attacked and you're not there to help?_

"It's only a few more miles... I guess it's fine." Dammit Ayumi always had her way didn't she?

"Thank you! I won't forget your kindness!" The Sorcerer smiled. Yoshiki wanted to punch him in the face. "What's your name?" The Sorcerer asked.

Yoshiki looked at him, "Name's Yoshiki... and your's?"

"Satoshi."


	3. A Soul's hardship

"Hey..." Satoshi took in a deep breath. "We've been walking for a while now. Didn't you say it we were almost there?"

Yoshiki pulled out his map and looked at it again. He noticed that the numbers on the map looked odd, like something was missing. It had initially said that it was five miles long, but looking closer he could see that there was a faint zero next to it. So it was fifty miles... not five. Well then they weren't that close at all.

"Yeah... we only have about forty something more miles to go..." Yoshiki said. They had to at least be somewhat closer to the town then they were an hour or two ago.

"What!? That's not close at all!" Satoshi complained.

"Well what do you want me to do? I don't have a horse or a carriage. I can't just whisk it out of nowhere."

Satoshi sighed and looked down, "Sorry, the heat is getting to me is all. I didn't mean to annoy you."

Yoshiki shrugged, "Just forget it."

They kept walking along side the river, Yoshiki was growing tired now and the sun was setting again. Well this was just great. Another day passed by all too quickly. He looked at the sky as it got darker. It was no use, they might as well rest now or they wouldn't have any energy to keep on going the next day. Yoshiki walked over to a tree, sat down and leaned against it.

"What are you doing?" Satoshi asked.

"Resting. We have to stop for the night." He said.

Satoshi sighed, "I guess you're right. I'm getting pretty tired too." He sat down across from Yoshiki and started to rummage through his bag. He pulled out some dried meat and began chewing on it, "Want some? I make it yesterday in the sun. It's just cow meat."

Yoshiki nodded and held out his hand, Satoshi gave him a few pieces. "Thanks." Yoshiki he stuffed the dry meat in his mouth. He hadn't eaten in two days this tasted like gourmet food to him.

"We should start a fire." Satoshi suggested.

"No way. It's too hot. Why would we need it anyway?"

"To cook fish."

"What fish?"

Satoshi then stood up and walked over to the river. He looked into the river and pushed his hand forward into the water. He came back with a root growing from his palm and on the sharp root was a dead fish.

"This fish." Satoshi replied.

Yoshiki began to gather around rocks and twigs to start a fire. Satoshi dug a shallow ditch and gathered leaves in it. Once the fire place was set up Yoshiki lit the debris on fire with an Offering. The spell swirled in the air then caused the debris to slowly light up then grow into a fire. Satoshi held the fish over the fire steadily to cook it.

"They sent you a letter?" He asked, "You know Avalon?"

"Yeah, I already went through the Ordeal." Yoshiki replied. "What 'bout you?" He hoped he did, there was no way he was going to travel with a lowly sorcerer who hadn't even went through their Ordeal yet.

"Yes." He said sternly and sighed, "I had just finished it yesterday, so I'm still healing from the uh... events."

Yoshiki nodded. He wasn't going to ask what happened. All Sorcerer's Ordeals took a great toll on who ever took them. Physically and mentally. Also he barely even knew the guy so best not to make things awkward.

"It's cooked now." Satoshi said. He put the fish on a flat stone and cut it in half with a knife he had in his pocket. "The good thing about this kind of fish is that it has no bones. You can just dig in and eat." He moved the head closer to Yoshiki. "Here you can have the upper part, that's easeir to eat because you don't have to watch out for the intestines."

Yoshiki picked up the head and began eating it. "Thanks." He mumbled between bites. He wondered why this guy was being so nice to him. What was the saying that Ayumi had always said? What goes around comes around or something like that? He had done a good deed and saved this Sorcerer, maybe that's why he's being so nice to him and feeding him.

After they had finished eating they went to the river to wash their hands. Yoshiki began to notice that his right arm was glowing slightly blue, there was the color of white that swirled with silver up above his bandages. That was strange, usually it looked normal with the occasional bleeding that happened due to offerings. He had a pretty good neutral arm it was never too Dark or too Divine. Every once in a while it would have a red glowing hue, but would return to normal later on. It never did this though. He had just Sacrificed those Fruit Spiders too, so it wouldn't be like this.

He remembered the events from a couple of days ago. He had Sacrificed Ayumi. Maybe this was the effect of her Soul? But wouldn't his arm look like this if he had Saved her?

"Looks like you've sacrificed a very Divine pure soul." Satoshi said as he looked at Yoshiki's arm.

Yoshiki looked at him surprised. How could he tell? Usually a person would think he had Saved someone with the way his arm looked.

"There's no way you can just know that by looking." Yoshiki said.

"I can. It's what I specialize in. The odd effects of absorbing souls. Your's is minor though and could probably go away in a few days." He said, "But it'll come back every once in a while. If you don't take care of it, I'm guessing it'll just turn into a Divine arm."

"What?" Yoshiki was at a loss of words.

"I didn't tell you this before, but I'm on my way to the town up North to help some Sorcerers who are having trouble controlling their arms that are effected by the souls they absorbed." Satoshi said. So that's what he was. One of those special doctors? The ones that other Sorcerers were trying to kill all the time? A lot of people didn't like them because they 'prevented Sorcerer's from accepting their fate' or whatever. They thought that a person deserved to die if they Sacrificed too many souls or Saved too much. Yoshiki thought it was really dumb to be killing them. The world needed Sorcerers, why get rid of them?

"Sorry for not telling you but, I didn't know if you were going to be an ally or enemy, but you seem like a good person."

Yoshiki chuckled. "Really? Even after knowing I sacrificed a very pure and Divine soul? I'm a murderer."

Satoshi shook his head, "You usually have a neutral arm correct? You Save and Sacrifice all the time. You do what you think is right. That's what makes a good person. We all have to make sacrifices in this world."

Yoshiki was stunned by his words. He never met someone who thought like that. Sorcerers usually don't have choices to make. It would be either to Sacrifice monsters all the time or to Save them. There really was no in between. The ones who decided to stray from that were seen as outsiders or scoundrels.

"It happened in the Ordeal..." Yoshiki said. He wasn't sure why he was telling Satoshi this. He had just barely met him today, but he had a feeling that Satoshi wasn't a bad person.

"I'm sorry." Satoshi said.

Yoshiki shook his head and looked up at the stars, "Well... it's in the past now."

...

Yoshiki sat down and leaned against a tree. Tomorrow would they would arrive at the town for sure. He was too tired to think of what else would happen the next day. He looked over to where Satoshi was sleeping.

He laid on the his side with his hands under his head. He seemed to be perfectly fine with sleeping on the ground. Satoshi was a weird guy, but nice. Maybe he was weak, but he seemed smart.

Yoshiki looked up at the stars and moon. At times like this right before he fell asleep was when he heard Ayumi's voice the most. He welcomed it into his mind. Her whispers were comforting and made him feel safe.

_Goodnight, my love._

* * *

><p><strong>Author's note: <strong>Well... this story took a different turn than what I had originally planned.

Oh well.


	4. The Price of Saving and Sacrificing

"We're almost there." Yoshiki said as he stumbled a bit forward. The heat felt like it was melting him. He could see the town in the distance, surrounded by trees. He wondered for a second if it was a mirage.

"What...?" Satoshi had sat down by the river to splash his face with some refreshing water.

"I said, we're almost there!" Yoshiki pointed at the small town a few yards ahead.

Satoshi looked ahead and stood up. He began to walk faster than he had before.

"My patients... I hope they're okay."

...

As they made it into town they noticed how stricken by poverty it was. Children were standing on the side of the streets staring at them as they passed. Their clothes were old and tattered; their faces were dirty and scratched.

Satoshi kept moving forward and looking around. Yoshiki followed him as he walked forward. For a moment he wondered why he even cared about Satoshi's patients, but something in him whispered that he might need his help. Even in death Ayumi still affected him. He wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing.

"There it is!" Satoshi said as he ran towards a run down shop with a blue roof. Yoshiki quickly followed after him. Satoshi ran up the stairs and opened the door, there was a bell on the ceiling that hung down. It jingled as the door hit it.

As Yoshiki entered he began to notice that the run down store wasn't really a store. There were kids everywhere, some sleeping in piles of towels on matts and others were just idling sitting. There were a few that read books and some where talking to each other.

Satoshi didn't seem to pay any attention as he walked forward through the faintly lit building. "Satoshi?" Yoshiki kept on following the other Sorcerer until he suddenly stopped.

There was a women behind the counter, breast feeding a baby under a blanket. She looked at the two and frowned slightly, "How may I help you?"

"I'm the doctor... The one for..." Satoshi rummaged through his bag and pulled out a journal. He rummaged through the pages and read, "Naomi Nakashima?"

The woman's eyes widened,"Oh yes, the doctor. Please let yourself into the room behind me. Satoshi nodded and went around the counter.

"Can he come in too? He's a friend." Satoshi asked and pointed over to Yoshiki.

The women smiled, "Of course."

Yoshiki made his way around the counter and next to Satoshi. "What is this place?" He asked.

"It's a care center for the children of this town." Satoshi replied as he slowly opened the door.

Another lady who was sitting next to a white bed looked up. "Oh thank goodness you must be the doctor." She said.

"Yes, is this your daughter?" He asked as he approached the bed.

The lady nodded, "Yes, she's became seriously ill after completing a pact. I'm very worried about her, people are saying she's going to die."

Satoshi looked over the girl on the bed, she looked like she was sweating and breathing hard. Her left eye was bandaged over with gauze and tied neatly around her head. "My poor daughter..." The lady ran her hand through the girls' short hair. "Can you help her?" She asked.

Satoshi nodded, "I'll need to take a look at her right arm first." He slowly pulled off the covers from her to reveal her arm. It was bandaged neatly, but burnt. Some spots of the bandages were black from the heat her arm was emanating. There were a few burns on her shoulder and neck as well. Satoshi wondered how long it would take before her body was completely burned.

"I kept changing the bandages, but she just keeps burning through them." The mother said.

Yoshiki looked at her arm in horror. She seemed to be in so much pain. How could people want others to suffer and die like this? This was literal hell.

"Yoshiki." He turned his head to Satoshi. "Yeah?"

"Can you freeze her arm?" He asked.

"I could, but why?"

"It's to stop the burning and relieve some of her pain for a bit." Satoshi said, "It'll give us enough time to find the cure."

Yoshiki nodded and used iceroot to freeze her right arm in ice. The girl's expression then softened and her heavy breathing ceased.

"We'll be back with the cure in a day or two." Satoshi said.

"Thank you so much." The lady said almost crying. "My daughter will be so happy when she awakens."

They left the run down store and entered the hot humid air of the outside. "What happened to her?" Yoshiki asked.

"She Sacrificed three Jack-o'-Lantern's in a row, by herself."

"Really!? She must be a strong Sorcerer." Yoshiki said, "She defeated three of those things and they're huge."

Satoshi shook his head, "She didn't pace herself right. If she was going to defeat them by herself she should have Sacrificed them one at a time. One soul everyday. Instead she did it all in one day."

"So what now?" Yoshiki asked.

"We find the cure now." Satoshi replied. "I know this is asking a bit much, but can you help me?"

For a moment Yoshiki thought of saying no. He could hear Ayumi's whispers in the back of his mind. Her Soul wanted him to help. It wasn't the fact that he didn't want to help, but he needed to find his parents. He couldn't waste another day. He knew his sister was worried sick as well too, back at home all alone by herself.

He looked back at the run down building then back at Satoshi. "I'll help."

Satoshi smiled. "Thanks."

"Let's just hurry and find the cure." Yoshiki replied.

"Yes we should." Satoshi frowned, "But I need to check on my other patient. She will need help as well."

Yoshiki nodded, he was taken a bit off guard by the news but he already decided to help. There was no backing out. "Hopefully the ice will keep her arm from burning up for as much time as we take." Yoshiki said.

"I hope so."

...

Satoshi took out his journal again, "My next patient is Mayu Suzumoto."

Yoshiki nodded, "Let's met her."

Satoshi began to walk down the side of shops and houses. The further they went the more old and run down things looked. Soon they came to a part where there were a bunch of shacks lined up together on both sides of them. A single dirt road winded into the town of shacks made of thin wood and blankets. Satoshi looked around unsure of where to go next.

Yoshiki was about to ask for directions from one of the many children running around if someone had not slammed into him.

"What?" He looked over to see what had hit him. It was a person who looked to be the same age as him. His glasses had gotten thrown onto the ground in the encounter. He quickly picked them up, and dusted them off.

"S-sorry." He stammered out as he placed his glasses back on his face.

"It's fine." Yoshiki huffed out. He was a little annoyed that he wasn't watching were he was going.

His eyes looked at him for a second then at Satoshi. "Well I'll be on my way then." He stepped forward to run, but Satoshi called out.

"Hey! Can you help us?"

The boy's eyes shifted as if he were contemplating on just running off. He seemed as if he were in a hurry. Yoshiki was about to tell Satoshi to forget about it, but Satoshi kept speaking.

"Were looking for a Sorceress, her name is Mayu Suzumoto."

"Why?" The boy asked.

"I'm a Doctor." Satoshi said in a more hushed tone. He looked around as if making sure only the three of them had heard what he said. Yoshiki was reminded that doctors like Satoshi were looked down on, and were endangered.

The boy's eyes widened. "I was looking for you. Thank God you're here. I-I'm Sakutaro Morishige, her friend. Um... please follow me!" He turned around and began to walk fast. The two followed after him into a one of the smaller shacks. It had no door and just a red towel hanging on the entrance for privacy. They entered the shack and saw a girl on the floor.

She was covered in a thin blanket and asleep. Satoshi walked up to her and crouched down to get a better look. Yoshiki went over as well, but still stood. He watched as Satoshi removed the blanket to reveal her right arm.

Yoshiki's eyes widened at the sight of it, white angelic feathers were sprouting out of her skin. It looked painful though, because her skin was red and scabbed where each feather had seemed to sprout out from. The feathers went all the way up to her shoulder. Some parts of her skin were blue, and her whole arm seemed to glow. Some feathers were longer than the others and some seemed like they had been cut off in a failed attempted to get rid of them. There was a large cut that started from her wrist and ended at her elbow, and between the skin even more feathers grew. There was no blood however, which seemed very strange.

Yoshiki had seen stuff like this before. Ayumi's arm would glow a pale blue and sometimes gold. A feather would sprout here or there, but it never irritated her skin. Or maybe it had, but he couldn't see through the bandages she wrapped on her right arm. Either way it had never gone to this extreme. There were way to many feathers on her skin, it seemed that they were on their way to cover the rest of her body.

"She Saved too many monsters at once." Satoshi said as he looked at her.

"I was one of them." The boy said and Satoshi nodded.

"Her kindness might just be her demise."

"You can treat her right?" Morishige asked.

He touched her arm delicately and moved it slightly. The glow from her arm dimmed as he touched her. "She Saved a lot it seems, eight all at once."

"They were all Archfiends?" Yoshiki asked.

Satoshi nodded, "I've seen this before. The shafts of the feathers are hard and sharp. They'll end up piercing her heart if we don't cure her in time" He stood up, "Someone else needs to save her."

The boy's eyes lit up "That's easy! I can-"

"Someone with a Neutral arm."

"Dammit."

Satoshi looked over at Yoshiki, "Well it seems your arm has gone back to normal." Yoshiki looked down at his arm, and noticed it wasn't glowing, but looked normal. No darkness and no brightness, just a plain and slightly wounded Neutral arm.

"Those few monster souls that you sacrificed must have gone into affect now."

"Yeah..." He looked over at the girl, "I could do it then. It shouldn't be too hard."

Morishige smiled, "Thank you so-"

"It's not that easy." Satoshi said, "She does need to be Saved by one who wields a Neutral arm but only through the process of Fate."

"Fate?" Yoshiki asked.

"No way. There has to be a better way." Morishige said.

Satoshi shook, "I'm sorry, but Fate is our only option. It's her only shot at surviving this."

"What the hell is Fate?" Yoshiki asked.

"Something that shouldn't exist." Morishige spat.

"It's a way of dealing with monsters Souls. You don't actually know if you're Sacrificing or Saving until the deed has already been done. They don't make the decision and leave it up to chance. This is what some call leaving things to Fate."

"Seems like a stupid way to run away from a choice that has to be made." Yoshiki said, "It's irresponsible."

"It's one way to go about things." Satoshi said, "Anyways, I guess you don't know how to do it since you had no idea what it was. I would do it, but my arm is too Dark. There's not enough time to change it to Neutral."

"So what do we do now?" Yoshiki asked.

"Look for another Sorcerer with a neutral arm that knows how to do Fate."

"If only my arm was neutral. I can't do anything for her." Morishige said. "All I did was become a monster."

"Hey, it's not your fault." Satoshi said. "Just be strong and stay by her side until we get back. Don't give into the temptations of the Chalice, you know it's words mean nothing when you have no control as a monster. Don't let yourself turn, be strong for her."

Morishige looked at Mayu, and stayed silent. He sat down by her and sighed.

"We'll be back as soon as we can."

When they walked outside and away from the shack, Satoshi turned to Yoshiki to speak. "We have to treat Suzumoto first, if we don't find someone before the day ends then she might not make it through the night."


End file.
